Démons débonnaires dans le roman des camps

Abstract

The novel of the camps, in its epistemological journey, has always respected a notorious logic: rewriting the unprecedented antagonism between anti-Semites and Jews – the former often being the executioners; the latter the scapegoats. Which is not surprising since he is to a large extent heir to history; history which has unequivocally attested that from 1933 to 1945 the German regime did nothing but propagate without hesitation, everywhere identically, the same chanting of hatred of the Jews whom it perceives and treats as errors of creation or the opposites of the human race. Thus, for many of them who lived during the bloodthirsty and lethal reign of this government led by the Führer or Guide Adolf Hitler, the latter and then his many Nazi followers, because of their wickedness without pity towards them, are demons. Contrary to this almost collegial perception, the present study based exclusively on a few French concentration camp novels will attest that there were Nazi officers and then their henchmen who showed themselves to be good or humane towards the Jews during this period sometimes going as far as to sacrifice their careers and their lives. It is such philanthropic or humanistic protagonists that we call “good-natured demons”.